Had To Break Out the Sraper!

Woke up this morning to the first snow of the season!  Not that much, but after temps in the 80's up until 2 days ago it really makes it feel like winter is just around the corner.  I posted a couple of pics on the home site here.  Also, check out the resort webcams this morning.  Mt. Rose is still socked in clouds, but I'm eager to see how white it is once they clear because according to the radio they had chain controls this morning.  As the main low came overhead last night it created a band of snow that moved over most of the Lake Tahoe Area along with lots of cold air.  Temps today will be lucky to break 50 in the valleys.

Models are back & forth on the track of the storm for this weekend.  How far West or East down the coast it travels will make a big differnce in how much moisture it can pick up.  Either way it should bring snow & cold to most of the area as most storms coming straight down from the North do.  With that path the crest can't create shadowing that limits the snow in the Lake Tahoe area.  Latest total precip accumulation amounts on this morning's models shows only enough for another dusting.  A piece of the storm looks to possibly break off & stall over Central CA keeping temps in the 40's thru Tuesday with the chance of snow showers lingering.

Beyond that it looks like a ridge build in off the Pac NW coast returning the temps to normal & keeping us dry for the following week to 10 days.  This is the pattern the is feared could take over this fall with the area of cold water growing in the North Pacific.  The models do have the ridge possibly flattening around the 15th of October allowing the chance of some bigger storms to move onshore.  This could be a response to the forecast for the PNA to go negative which would flatten out the storm track coming towards the West Coast.  It will be the battle of the warm water from El Nino vs. the cold water of the North Pacific to see where the lows & highs set up in the ocean this fall.

Interesting to watch the news last night & see the story of the earth quake in Samoa.  I was just reading an article yesterday about the low amount of sunspots & how they could stress the earth's rotation & cause an increase in seismic activity like in the 1800's with the Maunder Minimum.  You can read the article here.  Speaking of sunspots I think the recent couple of spots from this week are about to disappear.  BA